As mad as an Englishman - The Locomotive Works Diorama

[1-32]

hi dan
taking off the high spots with grit and grime sounds like a good thing.thinking about the whole process i feel that a lot of weathering is too perfect like pristine aging.let me explane  myself.a lot of aging does not show what process ie the seasons or what physical location caused this process.it is either summer or sometimes winter that is it.your model would be helped with some direct physical location -eg water puddles or rubbish that has collected in the gutter .spring new hope and growth autumn reflection and closer.
kind regards kim

[finescalerr]

Quite satisfactory so far. 1:48 scale. You really are nuts. -- Russ

[artizen]

When I added mortar I found it more visually pleasing to mix small batches and add randomly to the wall. That way there is a very slight variation in the colour across the wall which I think makes the big picture look more realistic. Weathering the bricks helps as well.

Like your column construction. Nice result. Concrete looks excellent as well.

[Max Corey]

I made thousands of 1/48 scale bricks years ago and am still sane enough they let me out into the main room with the other inmates.  Similar molds, similar results, although I cast in white and colored afterwards.

Those tiny bubbles mostly in the corners.  What I did was bought a lost wax jewelers casting vibrating unit and mounted it under a small glass pane (leveled) to lay the mold on so that the vibration shook most of those bubbles loose. A tiny bit of soap solution added to the plaster mix also helped release the bubbles.  The hard part is it tends to shift the plaster and make more water to come float up on the top.  It has to be very level.

When I make plaster molds from aircraft windshields/canopies for vacu-forming, I always use the vibrating unit (not to confuse with vibrators) to get the tiny bubbles out.  The only further step I know of is using a vacuum chamber (bell jar), which jewelry mold makers also often use, but never really felt the need.  Often a tooth pick carefully worked around each casting into corners where bubbles tend to be will get them out.  Tedious.

Looking forward to your brick laying.

Max in MI

[Malachi Constant]

Hey Dan --

I'm reviewing your progress here (which looks great!) ... and wondering about a couple of things: 

-- Did you make the curbs by joining the flat laser-cut sidewalk pieces at an angle and then sanding edges?

-- Any recollection of what you did on coloring the sidewalk pieces?  (Looks good!)

Thanks in advance!
Dallas

[danpickard]

Hi Dallas,
Hmmm, time for a memory test.  Better pic first without as much fancy filter stuff...


For the shaping of the curb, I mounted the vertical face in first, then butted in the base of the gutter (knowing the join would be covered by a bit of dust and debris).  The top lip of the gutter overlapped the vertical face, with the join filled with Tamiya putty, sanded, and a bit of shaving of some worn edges with a blade.

Colouring was a base of Woodlands "Top Coat" Concrete, first coat a general wash, followed by a bit of a stippled coat to get some variance.  Once dry, used an AK dark wash in a similar manor (general coat, followed by some spotted highlights).  Used AK streaking grime as small pin washes into some of the laser cut cracks, and then a few spots of the AK slime around some wet cracks and corners.  I think that was about it.  Will still eventually come back to this with some weeds, leaves and gutter rubbish.

Cheers,
Dan

[Malachi Constant]

Thank you!  Seeing as you've got it right, that info just might reduce the missteps on this end! -- Dallas